Lesson 143
Romans Chapter Eleven
The Faithfulness of God
Romans 11:11-12
After
painting such a dark picture from the O.T. quotes predicting
Paul
once again reassures us that Israel's rejection and spiritual blindness is but
temporary.
- Because of their disobedience of God's revelation,
their rejection of the Messiah, and their opposition now to the gospel, the
Jews have brought upon themselves divine judgment in the form of judicial blindness
for a time.
-
11:11 I
say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they?
Idea here
that we draw from the contrast of the 2 verbs is to stumble
with a view to falling beyond the possibility of recovery,
therefore permanently!
God, in His infinite wisdom, was not taken back by the rebellion of
Conclusion:
If
also brought salvation to the Gentiles.
Even the
turning of the Gentiles to Messiah will have a beneficial
effect on the Jews. God will use this to provoke the Jews to
jealousy.
Paul has answered two very crucial questions to this
point in Ch-11.
(1) Has the Word of God failed because
(2) Is there any hope for the nation
- Since God's promises to
Rem: God
is so sovereign that even man's rebellion does not thwart
His plans and purposes.
Rem: that
God's grace always is greater than man's sin,
The
spotlight has been on
Paul
does not want her failure to produce the wrong result in the hearts and lives
of his Gentile readers.
The
Gentiles are no different than the Jews, for all have sinned. The failures of
As
a result, Paul turns from explanation to application in verse 13 of Romans 11.
He
wishes for his Gentile readers to learn from
The structure of our text can be summarized this
way:
It is
probably best to view our passage as falling into two major
sections.
* Paul's
ministry to the Gentiles as a faithful servant 11:13-15
focus is on Paul, on his identity as a Jew, and on his
ministry to
the Gentiles.
* Paul's
words of admonition to the Gentiles, based upon the failure
of the Jews, gives
2 illustrations -- 11:16-24
focus on Paul's Gentile readers, who may misinterpret the
failure of
the Jews and the blessings which God has been pouring out on
the
Gentiles.
Paul's Ministry to the Gentiles Fulfills God's Plan:
Romans 11:13-15
But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles.
Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
In
the same breath he also says;
I magnify my ministry,
Stated
purpose in context for magnifying his ministry 11:14a
if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow
countrymen and save some of them.
His
preaching to the Gentiles certainly did provoke the Jews to jealousy, as we can
see in the Book of Acts: (Acts
Isaiah's
ministry as a prophet of God to the Jews of his generation was not to bring
this willful nation to repentance but to proclaim its guilt and even add to it (Isaiah
6:6-12).
Paul
performs his ministry to the Gentiles in hope--not only the hope of saving some
Gentiles, but in the certain hope that all
-
This hope is expressed in verse 15.
- Think about it! What you are now as a believer in Christ, a Gentile
having come by faith to Christ and having all spiritual blessings in Him, is the fruit of
If
"what
will (their) acceptance be but life from the dead?"
[lit. out from the
dead ones]
Their rejection brought about reconciliation
but their acceptance
"life
from the dead."
- What is primary is spiritual resurrection from
being dead ones, separated from God [Eph. 2:1-5]
The result is not only life from the dead for the individual but
primary in Paul's thinking is the corporate resurrection of